A Familiar Stranger
by Sage Sabotage
Summary: Isn’t this what I wanted? For her to stop loving me? For her to forget me?


**A Familiar Stranger**

**Author's Note:**

This fic is centered on the characters' thoughts. Characters are a bit OOC I suppose, I'm not really sure.

**Present time ages:**

Sakura-16

Sasuke-16

**Time Skip ages:**

Sakura-20

Sasuke-20

Naruto-20

**Disclaimer:** I don't own any of the Naruto characters. Only the ideas and the plot belong to me.

* * *

**-Sakura's POV-**

We can't help who we fall in love with. We don't need a reason to love somebody but sometimes we need pain in order to manifest the idea that love doesn't only come with happiness but pain as well.

He never gave me a reason to fall in love with him in the first place. He never talked in more than a few words and grunts but somehow I fell in love with him and I can't explain how and why.

Maybe it was the fact that he was gorgeous or maybe, just maybe in some unexplainable way, the pain in his soul called out to me. Unconsciously crying out for me to try and fix it.

Giving up on him would have been so much easier said than done. I could have grown to love someone else, I could have forgotten he existed in the first place but who was I fooling?

_I was fooling no one but myself._

My heart just wouldn't beat for someone else besides him.

Ironic, isn't it? Girl falls in love with boy, girl confesses and then said boy leaves her on a stone cold bench for power.

Maybe I was born for the specific purpose of hurting.

Three years passed and we meet again but this time it seemed that darkness was overshadowing him. His inner demons were overpowering whatever good was left of him.

I couldn't breathe as I stared at him and I was sure he could hear the furious beating of my heart, the heart that still beats for him and only him.

I was left again in disappointment as he charged at Naruto without sparring me a second glance. I guess I was still invisible huh?

_Still the same annoying Sakura._

Funny how annoying was his favorite description of me.

I felt alone all over again and I smiled; a bitter one at that because all the ironies in life seemed to gravitate towards me.

And I thought to myself maybe all that's left to do is leave, even when my heart and soul screams no. Sometimes it's just best to move on and forget everything, even if _he was my everything_.

So when the battle ended and both parties fled, I promised myself I wouldn't be the same old weak Sakura.

I would try and move on even when it seemed impossible.

* * *

**(Time skip: 4 years)**

**-Sasuke's POV-**

I can't believe I'm returning to the place I once left. Seems like nothing has changed, the same old buildings, the same faces and the familiarity of the place I once called home.

I might as well turn myself in and get this over with.

With my chakra still masked, I was about to go to the Hokage tower when I saw the unmistakable pink hair of my ex-teammate.

_Sakura._

Suddenly, it was like my body had a mind of its own. My heart started beating wildly and I was sure that this wasn't normal.

My feet moved on its own accord, following her until she reached her apartment.

I didn't expect her to catch me but she did.

She tensed. Her back was rigid and her hands were on its way to her kunai pouch, ready to defend herself from an attacker.

I stepped out of the shadows I was hiding in and unmasked my chakra.

She stared and I stared back.

Her eyes were still the same pair of jade orbs. The same pair of orbs that belonged to the girl who said she loves me, that she'll love me forever.

I couldn't get a single word out of my mouth. I couldn't even grunt.

And when she did say something I felt dread wash over my senses when she asked…

"_Do I know you?"_

And to say I was surprised was underestimating things. My face and stance didn't give out what I was thinking and feeling but inside I was in turmoil.

I couldn't breathe because the pain was so intense that I couldn't even move, couldn't even think straight.

The heart that I thought stopped beating when my family was massacred was starting to rip in such painful agony I didn't know was even possible to feel.

Isn't this what I wanted? For her to stop loving me? For her to forget me?

And forget me she did.

There was no love glimmering in those pools of jade. There was no sense of familiarity towards me.

I was a stranger in her life.

A fucking stranger!

I was the boy, no, the man she loved and now I'm nobody.

So this is what it feels like to be hurt by someone you cared for, for someone you found out you fucking love.

I loved her along.

_I love her._

Those three words kept repeating inside my head like a broken record.

As I was about to reply to her, I felt the unmistakable chakra of Naruto and I suddenly froze all over again because her eyes glimmered in a way that belonged to me before, her lips quirked in that smile that was once mine.

I just stood there watching as the man I called my best friend engulf the pink-haired woman, _my woman_, in his arms.

I felt like I died.

Death would have been so much better, would have been so much kinder.

Since the day my clan was killed, I thought my tears were all dried up.

I was wrong.

I felt my eyes start to burn. I felt the sudden beginning of tears to accumulate and I turned around ashamed for my sudden display of weakness.

I ignored Naruto's voice calling out to me. I just walked straight forward to the Hokage tower as planned.

And I thought to myself this isn't home anymore.

I don't have a home anymore.

And then she spoke up, my Sakura spoke up.

"Who is he Naruto-kun? He seems so familiar."

And my heart, the one I thought was dead broke all over again.

* * *

**Author's Note:**

I'm sorry to all the readers who wanted a happy ending. Don't fret because I am writing a sequel for this. Okay, I lied. I haven't written it yet but I'm plotting already. I will explain the reason why Sakura can't remember him in the sequel. This isn't a multi-chapter. This will stay as a one-shot. I will try and finish the sequel as early as I possibly can and post it up.

Reviews make me happy so don't forget to leave one. Gracias!


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